Lauren and Simon

How We Met

As the saying goes: “Eventually soulmates always meet because they have the same hiding place”. Well … that ‘hiding place’ for us was South East Asia and specifically, the island of Singapore. Born in Queens, NY Lauren landed in Singapore by way of Honolulu, Hawaii; Taipei, Taiwan; and Jakarta, Indonesia. While Simon was born in Watford, England and ended up in Singapore via Leeds and Glasgow. Our official first date after we met was dining in the dark. We had such a fun time doing something we both had never tried before. After fumbling around in the dark (and after a bottle of champagne), on a bit of a dare, we played the NY Times Fall in Love Test. Apparently, if you do this test with another person, you will instantly fall in love. Hmmmm…. Use with caution! ;) https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html?mcubz=0http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/fashion/no-37-bi…

How He Asked

Right after we got together and discovered our shared love of travel, we packed our first year full of trips around Asia as well as back home to England and America. We also quickly found out just how much both of us enjoy taking photos. So before our first getaway, we decided we should have a signature photo; something we did in each destination to catalog our journeys. We named this photo series: Never Look Back (NLB). We now have NLB pictures from: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | Jakarta, Indonesia | Bangkok, Thailand | Seminyak, Bali | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | Taman Negara, Malaysia | Taiping, Malaysia | Kobe, Japan | Penang, Malaysia | Koh Samui, Thailand | Queens, New York | Gardens by the Bay, Singapore | Chengdu, China | Osaka, Japan | Ubud, Bali | Hong Kong, SAR | Lhasa, Tibet … and counting!

While on an anniversary trip to Lhasa, Tibet we decided to take another NLB photo. Simon suggested going to the St. Regis Bar terrace early morning to get the sun rising over the Potala Palace. That morning, Lauren got into position for the NLB pose while Simon set the camera timer. This routine was par for the course, so Lauren had literally no idea what was about to happen. After the timer was set, Lauren didn’t feel Simon come run up next to her as usual and said, “where are you??” Simon replied, “I’m right here” and when she turned around, he was down on one knee. Not only was it a complete surprise, but it was all caught on camera :)